EVERYTHING is an adventure

Just some fun

If you’re fairly active in the social media world, you’re likely enjoying Twitter and the inter-connectedness it offers. You’re meeting new people online and offline and sapping up all the networking that comes with it.

1. He’s not what his bio says he his
He makes himself out to be just amazing. Desirable. He’s taken qualities that everyone loves and mashed them together into ‘I’m Mr. Awesome’. He’s likely just a dork in real life, compensating for the attention he missed out on in his pre-digital years.

2. If he’s big on Twitter, he’s only big on Twitter
These guys tend to take their online status VERY seriously. To the point that they actually don’t have all that much real going on offline. Offline, they talk about what’s going on online, ALL the time. They validate their worth by their online following.

3. If he chased you on Twitter, he’s probably chasing someone else there too
Twitter is not a dating site. Guys that use it as one like to break the rules and get a thrill from the chase. Once you’re there in real life, the game is over and it’s time for a new one.

Although social media is an exciting and extremely useful environment to be in, it also provides an easy opportunity for exaggeration and embellishment of the facts. Everyone wants to be noticed, and some are just clever enough to market themselves well so that you to believe what you read.

Don’t fall for the guy on Twitter, fall for the one in real life.

(Granted, neither has worked for me very well, but it sounds like good advice, right?)

I love this stuff. Show me something old/vintage/period/from another time when life was so completely different and I’m interested. Show something vintage that makes me laugh and I’m even more intrigued. I wonder what people will be saying about our current advertising in 80 years’ time?

Twitter is an interesting place. It is by far the most useful and honest social media platform and I actually get value from taking part in the Twitter love. The most entertainment for me, is reading people’s Bios and seeing what they really relate to in (online) reality, once you get to know them. I’ve created my list of favourites for your reading pleasure. Feel free to add some of your own.

Bio

Reality

Entrepreneur

Currently unemployed and once thought about starting some sort of business.

Traveller

I go away on holiday once a year in December, after slaving away for 11.5 months in an office. It’s pretty cool.

Views are my own

I feel that I am important enough to my big corporate that they care what I say.

Photographer

I Instagram a lot of pictures of sunsets.

Lover of life

I’m not quite sure what I’m into, but anything you say is cool!

Living on the edge

I skydived once.

*Long philosophical sentence about dancing and clouds and love*

(I don’t think I need to explain this one.)

Writer

I tweet a lot.

I have a passion for everything

I’m terribly boring.

*Please note – this is all in jest and in the name of laughs

It is interesting to see how people portray themselves publicly and what their actions actually say…

Having said that, and looked at my Bio again, I have to confess that I don’t actually live on a chandelier. Terribly sorry to disappoint.

I, of all people, have spent a week (almost) without a Smartphone. I’ll pause while you gasp…

…

I am what people would call a ‘superuser’. My phone is with me 24/7. Well, until the Durban July happened and my phone stayed in Durban while I flew back to JHB. I’m now using a handset that I’m sure was made in China in 1994.

I decided to treat this temporary break from my heart and lungs as an experiment.

Here are my findings:

1. Life goes on without a smartphone

2. Going places isn’t as fun when you can’t check in and make your friends jealous (okay that one is not actually true)

3. Talking to people on the phone is not only novel, but also quite pleasant

4. I had to remember how to spell again

5. My brain has become a lot quieter

6. People annoy me less

7. My true friends revealed themselves

Granted, I did still have access to social media sites via my laptop and iPad, but the constant presence of the digital world became mild and more voluntary.

It has really been pleasant I must say.

This bears plenty of philosophical questions…

Has society transformed into online memes? Have we lost our touch with humanity? Can we still differentiate between real and digital? With the online and offline world fast merging into one social ‘being’, is it possible to still separate the two?

Back in the day, we used to have personal personas and professional personas. Is this still possible today?Are we actually at that point in social evolution where we can no longer put on the ‘decent human being’ mask for one crowd, and let loose for another? Is the digital world forcing us to be more honest and more moral?

My personal feeling is that the digital social world is not actually isolating us from real life, it is just creating another facet of it. A facet that demands honesty and integrity. Is that really bad?

In today’s social media age, the gold rush is to get followers. It’s like human blood for vampires, or the opportunity to speak B.S. publicly to a massive audience for Julius Malema.

It’s like the world is about to run out of air and the only way to get more is to get another follower. Social media heroine. Already I feel the need for a fix… *twitch *twitch

Let’s just all be logical about this, though. Take the needle out of your arm and focus.

Yes, you need followers. Without them, you might as well be in a black hole, listening to the echo of your own voice. But would you rather have a thousand followers who are spambots, or 100 followers that you can actually engage with? Hillbrow whore or upper class escort?

All I’m saying is that we all need a strategy – attract the right kind of followers and you’ll get far more satisfaction out of the whole experience (no I am not still referring to prostitution).